Friarswood Post Office eBook

CHAPTER I—­THE STRANGE LAD

‘Goodness! If ever I did see such a pig!’
said Ellen King, as she mounted the stairs.
‘I wouldn’t touch him with a pair of tongs!’

‘Who?’ said a voice from the bedroom.

’Why, that tramper who has just been in to buy
a loaf! He is a perfect pig, I declare!
I only wonder you did not find of him up here!
The police ought to hinder such folk from coming into
decent people’s shops! There, you may
see him now!’

‘Is that he upon the bridge—­that
chap about the size of our Harold?’

’Yes. Did you ever see such a figure?
His clothes aren’t good enough for a scarecrow—­and
the dirt, you can’t see that from here, but
you might sow radishes in it!’

’Oh, he’s swinging on the rail, just as
I used to do. Put me down, Nelly; I don’t
want to see any more.’ And the eyes filled
with tears; there was a working about the thin cheeks
and the white lips, and a long sigh came out at last,
‘Oh, if I was but like him!’

‘I don’t want the pictures,’ said
Alfred wearily, as he laid his head down on his white
pillow, and shut his eyes because they were hot with
tears.

Ellen looked at him very sadly, and the feeling in
her own mind was, that he was right, and nothing could
make up for the health and strength that she knew
her mother feared would never return to him.

There he lay, the fair hair hanging round the white
brow with the furrows of pain in it, the purple-veined
lids closed over the great bright blue eyes, the long
fingers hanging limp and delicate as a lady’s,
the limbs stretched helplessly on the couch, whither
it cost him so much pain to be daily moved.
Who would have thought, that not six months ago that
poor cripple was the merriest and most active boy
in the parish?

The room was not a sad-looking one. There were
spotless white dimity curtains round the lattice window;
and the little bed, and the walnut of the great chest,
and of the doors of the press-bed on which Alfred
lay, shone with dark and pale grainings. There
was a carpet on the floor, and the chairs had chintz
cushions; the walls were as white as snow, and there
were pretty china ornaments on the mantel-piece, many
little pictures hanging upon the walls, and quite a
shelf of books upon the white cloth, laid so carefully
on the top of the drawers. A little table beside
Alfred held a glass with a few flowers, a cup with
some toast and water, a volume of the ‘Swiss
Family Robinson;’ and a large book of prints
of animals was on a chair where he could reach it.

A larger table was covered with needle-work, shreds
of lining, scissors, tapes, and Ellen’s red
work-box; and she herself sat beside it, a very nice-looking
girl of about seventeen, tall and slim, her lilac
dress and white collar fitting beautifully, her black
apron sitting nicely to her trim waist, and her light
hair shining, like the newly-wound silk of the silk-worm,
round her pleasant face; where the large, clear, well-opened
blue eyes, and the contrast of white and red on the
cheek, were a good deal like poor Alfred’s, and
gave an air of delicacy.